


in which the legends make very good first impressions

by SJAandDWfan



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen, i couldn't not include some avalance let's be real, mentions of ray/nora and amaya/zari, the legends meet nate's dad and it goes predictably badly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-18 17:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16521896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SJAandDWfan/pseuds/SJAandDWfan
Summary: “Where is Nate, anyway?” Zari asks.“He’s, uh,” Ray tries to think of the best way to put it. “He’s sticking around in 2018 for a while. Trying to mend things with his dad, which is why I’m giving you a heads up about how I met him. I think we might all be getting to know him, but I can’t imagine it being as awkward as my first meeting with him.”At that moment in time, Ray had no idea just how wrong he would turn out to be.orthe rest of the legends meet hank heywood, and it goes about as well as you'd expect





	in which the legends make very good first impressions

**Author's Note:**

> prompted on tumblr - just a little one shot to get back into the swing of writing short-form after the multichap! i'm trying out writing from multiple perspectives for a potential something, so let me know what you think!

“So, I met Nate’s dad,” Ray says at dinner with Sara and Zari that night.

(Mick never eats with them in the galley, choosing instead to take his food to his room. Likewise, Constantine seems to disappear on the ship from time to time, and Ray’s not entirely sure he’s ever seen him eat _any_ kind of food, period.)

He’s pushing his food around his plate, not really that hungry after having to (at least, temporarily) say goodbye to his best friend on the ship. Nate choosing to stay at the Time Bureau in an effort to patch things up with Hank stings a bit, even though Ray knows why he’s doing it.

At least Ray still has the rest of the team. Even if that team seems to be dwindling in numbers more and more as time goes on. Wally and Amaya had both left, and now Nate might be doing the same thing, and it’s hard. In fact, Sara and Mick are the only two people who have been on the Waverider as long as Ray has. Everything’s in a constant state of change.

And then there’s Nora.

Nora, who he hasn’t seen in five months; who he hopes is laying low after she’d escaped from the Time Bureau – the very organisation that his best friend now works for. He misses her. He hopes he hadn’t made a mistake in aiding her escape.

There’s a lot going on right now, and so he says it more as a distraction than anything else. A passing mention.

“Oh, yeah?” Sara raises an eyebrow, and Ray guesses she’s already got the lowdown on Hank Heywood from Ava. It looks like she hasn’t heard about the pig incident yet, though.

“He’s kind of intimidating,” Ray comments. “And, uh, he might have seen me naked.”

Zari chokes on her food.

Sara thumps her on the back, looking at Ray in confusion. Ava definitely hasn’t told her about the pig situation yet, then.

“Explain,” Zari wheezes, getting her breathing back under control and shooting Sara a grateful look.

“So, the fairy godmother turned Mick and I into pigs because Prudence called us swine, and then Nate came by asking for my help in proving to his dad that magic was real,” Ray recounts, as Sara and Zari exchange a look. “I guess the spell must’ve been reversed at the same time Prudence released her, because one moment I was a pig and the next I was human again. Only I didn’t have my clothes on, and Nate was carrying me, and Gary and Ava were there too and it was super awkward. But we proved magic was real and now the Time Bureau has its funding, so…” Ray smiles. It could’ve been worse.

“Wow,” Zari says, shaking her head in disbelief. “And I thought almost getting burned at the stake was crazy.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Ray asks.

Zari waves a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it.”

Sara bites back a laugh. “Poor Ava. She must’ve been traumatised. First Nate wandering around her office without pants, and now this.”

Ray grimaces. “I told her I was sorry.”

“Where is Nate, anyway?” Zari asks.

“He’s, uh,” Ray tries to think of the best way to put it. “He’s sticking around in 2018 for a while. Trying to mend things with his dad, which is why I’m giving you a heads up about how I met him. I think we might all be getting to know him, but I can’t imagine it being as awkward as my first meeting with him.”

At that moment in time, Ray had no idea just how wrong he would turn out to be.

 

\----------

 

Zari’s typing away at her laptop, the sound of her fingers moving over the keys drowned out by the music playing in her room. Just the way she likes it. She’s always played music in her room, but ever since Amaya left, Zari’s been trying to lose herself in the distraction. She misses her more than she'd thought would be possible, but she's doing her level best to ignore her feelings about the whole thing.

That’s what this little project is about, at any rate.

She gets past the last firewall surprisingly easily, and then she’s in. Zari’s not looking for anything in particular – she’s just browsing, and she gets in a few minutes of exploration before she realises she’s been made.

“Shit,” she whispers, getting out of the virtual break-in as quickly as possible. Not quickly enough.

Zari’s sure it’s due to the power of time travel, but soon enough a portal is opening up in her room to reveal Hank Heywood with Ava, Gary and Nate in tow. Zari’s first thought is that Nate looks a lot like his dad. Her second thought is how little she likes the glare that Hank is sending her way.

“Director Sharpe,” Zari greets instead, turning off the music. “How’s your day been so far?”

Ava looks unimpressed. “Zari – Miss Tomaz,” she corrects herself. “Care to explain why Mr Heywood has just come to us with reports of a security breach in the Pentagon’s mainframe?”

Zari shrugs. “No idea. You should look into that, though.”

Ava sighs. “Come on, Zari, I know it was you. There’s only one place the co-ordinates could have been traced back to.”

“How are there even any co-ordinates in the Temporal Zone?” Zari asks. She clenches her jaw for a moment. “Fine. I admit it was me. But the fact that you just assumed I was the one who did it? That hurts me, Director. It could’ve been Sara.”

“When Sara broke into the Pentagon, she did it in person,” Ava tells her, and Zari’s jaw drops. She hadn’t expected that, although it does make sense for this team.

“Are we going to detain her, or what?” Hank asks suddenly, and Zari blanches.

Nate jumps in. “Woah, woah, woah. I don’t think we need to do that.”

Zari’s never been more thankful for him.

“I don’t want to arrest Zari,” Gary pipes up. Zari’s grateful for him too, even if she suspects he’s only saying that because he’s afraid of her.

Hank’s jaw sets, and he looks to Ava. “What about you, Director Sharpe?”

Ava’s gaze burns through Zari, and she knows that she’s weighing up her options. Finally, Ava speaks.

“I don’t believe taking Miss Tomaz into custody is necessary,” she says, and Zari sighs in relief. “She didn’t actually steal or copy any files.”

“I was just bored,” Zari shrugs, and Ava gives her a wry smile. Nate gives her a thumbs up, and Zari’s really missed him the past week.

“Very well,” Heywood says, and Zari can’t quite believe she’s being let off the hook this easy. “Just… stay out from now on.”

“Sure thing,” Zari says, mentally crossing her fingers.

Hank turns to leave, followed closely by Gary. Nate and Ava linger, though.

“Sara broke into the Pentagon?” Nate asks.

“Before your time with the team,” Ava confirms. “It’s in her file. That, and she told me about it once.”

Zari notices a slight blush on her cheeks. “Did she bring out her disguise?”

Ava’s lack of eye contact tells Zari all she needs to know.

“She did, didn’t she?”

“It is not my fault that she looks really good in uniform,” Ava hisses, turning and exiting Zari’s room through the portal.

Nate looks at Zari with an expression of glee that makes them both crack up, and for a moment, it feels just like old times. Her and Nate, laughing together on the ship. But then Nate straightens his tie and looks over his shoulder at the still-open portal, and Zari’s laughter dies in her throat.

“Sorry,” Nate apologises. “I should… go.”

Zari nods. “Try not to miss us too much.”

“This isn’t forever, Z,” Nate promises, and Zari wishes she could completely believe him.

He leaves, and Zari’s left with an empty, silent room and another awkward first meeting under her belt.

 

\----------

 

Sara hasn’t seen Ava in three days.

Their conflicting schedules mean they keep missing each other, and so Sara decides to take matters into her own hands.

She portals into Ava’s office (which is, regrettably, open-plan), and finds it empty. She knows Ava’s at the Time Bureau – Ava’s almost always at the Time Bureau when she’s not with Sara – and so she waits, sitting in Ava’s chair and inspecting the items on her desk with interest.

She’s just about to pick up this strange decorative sand timer – because apparently Ava likes to be very on-the-nose about her décor – when her girlfriend walks into view. Ava’s step doesn’t falter when she sees Sara seated at her desk, but a slight expression of confusion does cross her face before it relaxes into a smile.

“How was work?” Sara asks conversationally.

“I’m still _at_ work,” Ava rolls her eyes, coming to a stop by Sara’s side. “And you’re in my seat.”

Sara props her feet up on the desk, sending a disarming smile Ava’s way.

“Sara,” Ava sighs, pushing Sara’s boots off of her paperwork. “Baby, please. It’s been a long day and it’s not even over yet.”

The tiredness Sara can see in her girlfriend’s body is enough to make her drop the playful act immediately. She reaches for Ava’s hand as she stands up, guiding her down to sit in her own chair. Ava sighs as she sits down, and Sara’s kicking herself a bit for not noticing how exhausted she looks a bit sooner.

“What’s wrong?” Sara asks, crouching by the chair and raising the back of Ava’s hand to her lips. She presses a kiss there, and the corners of Ava’s mouth pull up into a smile.

“Gary and Nate let a bunch of fugitives out and they were roaming around the Bureau,” Ava closes her eyes as Sara traces patterns over the backs of her hands. “We had to round them up before Mr Heywood dropped in for a visit. Worst part is that he didn’t even show up.”

Sara pulls a sympathetic face. “So, was today better or worse than the pitch day?”

Ava groans. “Maybe better, if only because there was a relieving lack of naked men today.”

“Again, Ray sends his apologies,” Sara says. Ava snorts.

“Come here,” she says, and it’s almost a whine as she blindly pulls Sara up and closer to her. Because, Sara reminds herself, they haven’t seen each other in three days.

She ends up kind of straddling Ava on her seat, and it’s late enough that she’s reasonably sure Ava’s the only one left here, so she lets herself be pulled into Ava’s lap. Sara herself wouldn’t care if they had an audience, but she knows Ava has a tough exterior to maintain. That, and Ava’s pretty much the opposite of an exhibitionist.

Ava’s eyes are still closed, but her arms are wrapped around Sara’s back now and she looks a lot more relaxed to have Sara’s comforting weight on top of her. Sara cups her face gently, and leans in to press a kiss to her lips. Ava hums happily, and Sara kisses her again.

As is so often the case with them, one kiss turns into another, and Sara can’t resist teasing Ava’s mouth open with her tongue. It’s like she can never get enough of Ava, especially once she starts kissing her.

Besides, like, _three days_.

Sara’s just drawn the first whimper from Ava’s lips when someone clears their throat behind her.

Ava pulls back like she’s been burned, and Sara cranes her head around to see who it is. Her heart sinks.

“Mr Heywood,” Ava says, and Sara gets dumped unceremoniously out of her lap.

“I was about to apologise for my lateness,” Hank says, stilted and overly-professional. “I can see I’m interrupting.”

“No, no, you’re not,” Ava clears her throat, straightening out the lapels of her blazer as she stands. “Mr Heywood, this is Sara Lance.”

Sara nods awkwardly at him, as Hank’s making no effort to move closer.

“You’re friends with my son.” It’s not a question.

“Yes, I am,” Sara confirms. “He’s… a wonderful man.”

Sara’s not sure she’s ever described Nate as a ‘wonderful man’ before – not sure she’s described _anyone_ like that in her life – but Ava’s radiating so much anxiety that Sara thinks it’s starting to affect her, too.

“Yes, well,” Hank says, clearly uncomfortable. “Would it be preferable to reschedule our meeting for tomorrow morning, Director Sharpe?”

“Yes, of course,” Ava says immediately.

“Let’s say ten,” Hank says, clearly keen to leave as soon as possible. He nods sharply to them. “I’ll be on my way now.”

Ava looks like she’s close to offering to walk him out, but Hank is already turning and leaving. They watch him go, and as soon as he’s out of sight Ava sinks back down into her chair with a groan.

“That was so embarrassing,” she mumbles.

Sara reaches out cautiously, not wanting to startle Ava with her touch. She strokes Ava’s hair gently, muttering what she hopes are comforting words. As far as first impressions go, this certainly hadn’t been the best she’d ever made.

It hadn’t been the _worst_ , though, so Sara tries to focus on the positives.

 

\----------

 

Constantine doesn’t understand what the problem is.

He sort-of-lives on this ship now, and so surely he has just as much of a right as everyone else to use the food fabricator to create whatever he wants. Most of the legends simply pull a face at the oftentimes unfortunate smell coming from whatever he’s in the process of cooking up, and leave the galley. But not Mick Rory.

Mr Rory seems intent on trying to punch John in the face.

John doesn’t exactly blame him; he knows there’s lots of people who want to punch him in the face sometimes (he thinks Ava would have by now if she’d thought she could get away with it), but none of them have ever been _quite_ so upfront about it as Mick.

“I’ll just be a moment,” Constantine says when he hears footsteps approach, and then come to a halt. From the heavy tread of what sounds like boots, he’d wager a guess that it was Mick himself.

An angry grunt confirms this a moment later.

“What the hell are you making this time?” He growls.

John turns around to face him, tucking his hands into his trouser pockets with a grin. “I’m cooking up a concoction to help us find our next fugitive.”

“We have something for that,” Mick narrows his eyes. “A size—seisma-thing.”

“Seismograph?” John finishes. “And that’s all well and good, but I still think a sprinkle of this would go a long way.” He nods to the bowl in the fabricator, which is starting to bubble.

Mick glares at him so hard that John gets the distinct impression he’s trying to eviscerate him there and then.

“I want to make dinner,” he grits his teeth.

“Like I said, I’ll just be a moment,” John assures him. “Gideon, add some shredded rat’s liver to the mixture, will you?”

This seems to be the final straw for Mick. The mention of a rat appears to anger him, and John vaguely remembers Doctor Palmer waffling on about a pet Mick used to have.

Mick charges him, and John doesn’t even have enough time for an incantation. He’s pushed backwards onto the floor, and then it’s a good old-fashioned brawl. Constantine is so preoccupied with trying to gain the upper hand in the fight that he doesn’t notice a portal opening in the galley.

“What the hell is going on?” Sara’s voice breaks through the fight-induced haze, something which hasn’t descended over John since he’d spent some time in Glasgow almost a year ago.

“He’s being a _dick_ ,” Mick says, and it would sound petulant if spoken in another voice.

“We don’t attack our teammates,” Sara sighs, and John looks up from the ground to see her wrinkle her nose. “What is that smell?”

“I’m not a part of your team. And I am concocting a magical aid,” Constantine explains, and Sara looks unimpressed. Next to her, Ava rolls her eyes.

“You’re stinking out the galley, is what you’re doing,” Sara says.

John’s eyes slide over to the third person that had emerged from the portal. Another suit type, he has grey hair and a permanent-looking disapproving expression on his face. John doesn’t recognise him.

The man looks at Ava and Sara, exasperation lacing his voice when he speaks. “This is your team that saved the world?”

“Only some of them,” Sara says pointedly.

“Mr Heywood, these actions aren’t a fair representation of Sara’s team,” Ava tries to explain, and the name clicks in John’s head. This bloke must be Nate’s father; the one in charge of the Bureau’s funding.

“These are the people you’re aligning the Bureau with?” Heywood asks, and Mick pushes John back as he finally stands back up.

“Got a problem?” He asks, and Heywood levels a glare at him.

Smoke catches the corner of John’s eye. He turns his head to see the concoction he’s brewing bubbling away rapidly. Too rapidly.

“I don’t wish to alarm anybody, but we should perhaps take cover,” Constantine speaks up.

Heywood gives him a withering look that he’s more used to seeing from Ava. “And why’s that?”

The potion explodes, covering the five of them in the foul-smelling mixture. There’s utter silence for a moment, and John sighs.

“That’s why.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Mick threatens, and John looks to Sara beseechingly.

Sara just rolls her eyes. “Try not to.”

That’s all she says before she grabs Ava’s hand and leads her and Heywood back through the portal to the Time Bureau, presumably to find some showers. So much for _we don’t attack our teammates_ , John thinks.

But then again, he realises as Mick charges him once more, he had denied being a part of the team.

 

\----------

 

The stories Nate hears at dinner make him simultaneously want to laugh and cry. Hank is utterly disbelieving as he recounts his first interactions with each member of the team.

Nate shakes his head. The legends really do seem to have the worst luck with meeting his dad.

 

**Author's Note:**

> as always, my tumblr is ilovemyships and my twitter is @shegaylol. have a great day folks!


End file.
